New and improved widgets (widgets display content in your sidebar, or footer).

Behind the scenes technical improvements, that help keep WordPress sites safe and working reliably. (Sadly the internet is filled with weirdos and robots, trying to hack into anything they can. The mighty coders who work on WordPress are always tightening security.)

If you’re interested, here’s more about WordPress 4.9 “Tipton” at wordpress.org. The WordPress website platform is being continually updated and improved. You know nothing is static on the Internet.

Named after Billy Tipton

Did you know that every WordPress release is named after a jazz artist?

This release is “Tipton” after Billy Tipton, who passed away in 1989 in Spokane, WA. He was 74 years old. Upon his death it was discovered that, although he lived his adult live as a man, he was assigned female at birth. You can read more about his interesting life on wikipedia and HistoryLink.

Keep your site fresh, Google likes that

As usual, we encourage you to keep your website content up-to-date and as fresh as possible. Google likes that. If you have a website built in WordPress, it’s easy to do. The hard part is just finding some time to sit down, take a look at your website and see how you can “freshen” it up. The more often you do it, the easier it will become.

We’re here for our website care plan subscribers. Including tutoring via screen share calls, where we make changes to their site together. We can even record the session and make the recording available for future reference. Learn about our WordPress website care plans.

After what seems like years of waiting, the .art gTLD (generic top-level domains) will be wide open for registrations May 10.* This is a new opportunity for artists to get a targeted and appropriate website domain name.

The price will be about $14.99, which makes it an affordable option. Some of the new gTLDs cost $40 or more to renew each year (.design for example). Some of the short and sweet .art domains have been snatched up in the presale (where prices are much higher), but it’s likely yourname.art is available.

Register yourname.art

So artists, go ahead and register yourname.art. This is a wise move for all artists whether you’re an emerging artist, or a seasoned professional artist. Stake your place on the internet with a clear message you offer ART right there in your URL. If you’re an artist that has a strong niche you could try for a domain name that includes your niche — like petportrait.art (well, not that one, as petportrait.art has been reserved during the land rush period that began in February.) Get creative and search for a domain that fits your work, and would be a Google search term used by your art buyers. (Relevant terms in your URL will help your search engine ranking.)

.art availability

I believe most domain registrars will have .art domain names available, but check with the registrar of your choice as soon a possible. I register and keep my domains at name.com. You may get discount there if you follow this name.com referral link. (And I might get a little credit too.) If you already have a domain registered it’s wise to keep them all with the same company. Moving registrars is a pain (but not impossible).

(May 11 UPDATE: .art is not available at name.com, it’s available at webnames.ca ($14.99), godaddy.com (12.99 1st year) and others, where the price varies.)

A new .art domain could be the inspiration you need to create a fresh new website to showcase your artwork, or you can just point your new .art domain to your existing website. Forwarding a domain can be done simply at your website registrar. When using and publicizing a your new .art URL, include “www” in front of your new domain so it’s clear it’s a website address. With a .com address you can get away without the www, but these new TLDs can be confusing to many folks.

Others options for creatives are .studio .gallery .photo and .pictures

New gTLDs, like (.design, .shop .guru) have are becoming widely used and more are coming online. These topic specific domain allow for better organization of the Web. A previous post covers more details about these new TLDs. Good luck!